Gates Warns Against Smallpox Terrorist Attacks in Bid to Prevent Pandemic

• Gates Warns Against Smallpox Terrorist Attacks in Bid to Prevent Pandemic

• He said that countries like the US and the UK must spend ‘tens of billions to fund the research.

EKO HOT BLOG Bill Gates has urged nations to invest billions of dollars in research and development to avoid future pandemics and “bio-terrorism.”

The millionaire founder of Microsoft has warned that world leaders must prepare for calamities such as “smallpox terror strikes” at any cost, and has urged for the establishment of a new billion-dollar World Health Organization Pandemic Task Force.

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He issued the warning and requested funding during a Policy Exchange think tank discussion with former UK health secretary and chair of the Health Select Committee, Jeremy Hunt, yesterday.

While the research may be expensive, he said that it could also lead to other innovations, such as eradicating flu and the common cold.

He said that countries like the US and the UK must spend ‘tens of billions to fund the research.

‘I’m hoping in five years, I can write a book called, ‘We ARE ready for the next pandemic’, but it’ll take tens of billions in R&D – the US and the UK will be part of that’, he said.

‘It’ll take probably about a billion a year for a pandemic Task Force at the WHO level, which is doing the surveillance and actually doing what I call ‘germ games’ where you practise.’

Gates suggested that the ‘germ-games’ could include preparing for acts of bioterrorism such as smallpox attacks on airports, likening them to ‘war-games’ used by militaries to train for conflicts the world over.

‘You say, OK, what if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to 10 airports? You know, how would the world respond to that?’ Gates said.

‘There’s naturally-caused epidemics and bioterrorism-caused epidemics that could even be way worse than what we experienced today.’

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